If Faith is to trust and obey God, then Hope is the confidence that God will bring about the good he has promised—no matter how unlikely it seems.
God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, after God had promised Abraham that through Isaac, He would make him the father of many nations. It made no sense. Indeed, it sure looked like God was forcing Abraham to choose between Faith and Hope. If Abraham lacked Faith, he would not have obeyed at all; but if he obeyed and sacrificed Isaac, how could he continue to have hope in God’s promise?
Yet Romans 4 says that “[i]n hope [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told…,” and that “[n]o unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God,” because he was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”
It is difficult to imagine Abraham up on Mount Moriah with a smile on his face. But maybe we should. After all, he had Hope.
Have a wonderful day.
